Where I Belong
by Lindous
Summary: "Steven...I don't know how to tell you this...Gems who were exiled to Earth were exiled because they were corrupted, and beyond hope of healing." Rated T, Garnet-centric
1. The Jolt of Gemstones

_"All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming."_

** -Helen Keller**

**Chapter One: The Jolt of Gemstones**

* * *

><p>A beautiful array of colors, oranges and reds and pinks, had already been cast out over the clouds of Beach City by the time the gems had decided to return home. When the warp pad lit up in Steven's room, all four gems stepped onto the wooden floor, exhausted. While Pearl and Amethyst limped off of the warp pad, Garnet and Steven walked, hand in hand, with all three gems trying to coax Steven into staying calm.<p>

"It was enormous!" Steven was shouting, almost crying. "And I didn't realize I was in the way...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

Amethyst stood up straight, and grinned.

"It's just a scratch, Steven," she managed, gritting her teeth through some pain. "I mean, seriously, we're tougher than that. I bet I can still win against you if we were to have a toughness contest." She was covered in scrapes that somehow didn't bleed, and looked as though she had escaped a textile factory that no safety regulations.

Pearl, on the other hand, was only a bit better off.

"It's nothing we couldn't handle," the motherly gem kept insisting, and slowly, Steven calmed down. Garnet didn't say anything. She believed it only right of her to intervene when necessary, and Pearl and Amethyst were handling things just fine. Before they had even gone on this mission, their agreement was that Garnet would be guarding Steven most heavily this time around.

Garnet slowly let go of Steven's hand when she saw the younger gem relax, and gave him a small shove toward Pearl and Amethyst.

"Why don't we all head down to the beach?" Amethyst asked.

"Amethyst, that's a great idea! Summer is going to be over soon, and then it will be too cold for Steven to go into the water," Pearl almost sang, eager to change the subject of injuries. Steven still looked depressed.

"Are you sure that you are up for it?" he asked quietly, looking at the floor.

Now Garnet chose to intervene.

"Gems heal fast from injuries, so that they may be ready for more battles in the near future. You don't need to worry, Steven; it's our job to worry about you."

"But I care about you guys," Steven almost whined, looking at his three friends. Garnet frowned.

"We can take care of ourselves," she coaxed. That didn't stop Steven from looking almost heartbroken. "We have had to live and do missions for a long time, and we've come back in worse shape, so don't worry about us so much, okay?"

"...Okay," Steven said finally. He put on a smile, and rushed to the upper part of his room. "I'm going to get my swim trunks! Meet me down by the shore!"

Garnet smiled. "I'll be ready for the next Ultimate Water Fight when you get there, should you choose to accept that challenge."

Amethyst's hearty laugh rang warmly through the house. "You and me against Pearl and Garnet, Steven!" she shouted.

"Okay!" Steven shouted happily, forgetting his earlier worries. "Be down in a moment!"

"Wait a moment! I didn't get to chose a team!" Pearl shouted. "I didn't even get to choose whether or not I wanted to be a part of this!"

"You're complaining about being on Garnet's team?" Amethyst asked, raising on eyebrow and wearing her 'Seriously, Pearl?' expression.

Pearl glared back in response, and crossed her arms.

"I don't enjoy splashing around in cold water."

"Whatever. Come have some fun!" Amethyst taunted happily.

"Let's get outside before dark," Garnet murmured pensively, before smiling at her too companions as the three of them headed out the door. "Meet us out there, Steven!"

"Okay!" Garnet heard shouted back at her. As she soon as she closed the door behind her, both Pearl and Amethyst grew quiet as all three gems clamored down the wooden steps.

"So really," Garnet said after a long moment of silence, "Are the two of you okay? There isn't any shame in resting for awhile if you are damaged. It could save your life if we go on a mission in the near future."

"Don't fret, Garnet. You're not nearly as good at it as Pearl or Steven," Amethyst shrugged. "I'll be fine, I end up like this all the time after the missions. The main thing is that we prevented Steven from getting hurt when the cavern started to collapse."

"That's not exactly something we can be proud of," Pearl chided, not in an irritated way, but with an apprehensive tone. "I doubt we should be bringing him into situations like that to begin with. I'm sorry, Garnet, but I really don't agree with bringing him on so many missions lately."

Garnet remained silent for a long while as the gems shuffled through the warm sand and to the calm shore of the beach, the temple only a short distance away from them.

"This stuff happens to us regularly, Pearl. Steven being with us doesn't make the outcome any different," Amethyst said.

"But it puts him in danger! And what if next time he's the one who's hurt?" Pearl snapped back at Amethyst.

Garnet raised and single hand, signaling for the two bickering gems to calm down.

"Steven needs to be prepared for what's coming ahead, and so do we. If we can't protect him, then we have failed because we can't protect anyone. And if he isn't prepared, than we have failed again," Garnet said slowly, almost grimly.

Pearl took those words in slowly, and finally nodded. "I trust your judgment," she said, and turned toward the water. "So what is an ultimate-splash-fight?"

"I'm glad you asked!"

Pearl, who was knee deep in sea water, turned around to face the source of the voice that had just called out, and in shock, watched Steven, arms a-blazing, ran toward the water. He laughed loudly when he saw Pearl's face, and quickly waded into the water before flopping ungracefully into a short wave, managing to haphazardly splash a decent amount of seawater over Pearl's face and hair.

Pearl spat water out of her mouth and winced from the cold.

"Come, Steven!" Amethyst yelled. "Let's show her a real splash fight!"

Steven and Amethyst both scooped sea water, flinging and beating small waves in skinnier gem's direction as she shrank back from the cold, spitting salt out of her mouth.

Garnet crouched behind Steven and Amethyst, who were ganging up on Pearl, and then stood up to her full height. As sea water dripped off of her, Steven and Amethyst turned around to see Garnet towering over them, smiling.

"Don't 'gang-up' on my teammate," Garnet said with a proud smile, the quotation marks audible in the sentence. She summoned both of her gauntlets, and proceeded to begin punching the water, sending waves cascading over Steven and Amethyst while Pearl recovered from the attack.

Pearl joined back in, and it became an all-out water war as they four gems took a rare moment to enjoy time together and smile. To Steven, it all ended to soon when Garnet uncharacteristically slipped backwards into the water, submerged in three feet of salty waves as the sun was just beginning to set.

"Garnet?!" Steven yelled. Both Pearl and Amethyst looked over to see Garnet just below the surface of the water, her mouth drawn back into a grimace of intense pain. Wordlessly, but slightly panicked, Pearl and Amethyst both grabbed one of Garnet's shoulders and hauled her onto draw sand, Steven following behind.

"Is she breathing?" Steven asked, kneeling down where Pearl and Amethyst had laid Garnet on the sand.

"She's not unconscious," Pearl said with calm seriousness, pointing out the fact that Garnet had her hands drawn toward chest. She and Amethyst both knelt over Garnet for a moment, a bit uneasy.

"I'm fine," Garnet gasped, sitting up. She drew her hands away from her chest and looked at both of her gemstones. They were glowing very faintly now, where as before they had turned red and burned like a living fire. Garnet grimaced when she noticed the raw flesh around the gemstones on her hands, as if she had actually been burned. "I need to go to the temple."

Without another word, Garnet pushed herself to her feet (a bit painfully) and shoved past a worried Pearl and stunned Amethyst. Steven stared after Garnet curiously, and finally shook his head.

"Do you guys want to go back into the water, or go back inside?" he asked.

"Inside," both gems answered at once, staring after Garnet.

* * *

><p>As Garnet approached her door to the temple, the too stones on her door lit up in response to her gems. Garnet let the gemstones on her hands open the door, and held back a gasp of pain. Shrugging it off quickly, she made her way to her own room of the temple, rethinking of the incident that had just occurred down at the beach.<p>

Garnet's room in the temple was unique from the other rooms; instead of bright waterfalls, swords, and junk piles, she preferred the room near the center of the temple that had walls constantly bathed in the red light illuminating from the crystal heart of the temple. There was an armchair there, a humanish object that Pearl had thought was strange to see inside Garnet's room, but that Garnet enjoyed it none the less. Along with that, there were several relics scattered about the large room, some in piles, some on pedestals, that Garnet would occasionally look through in case any object was important to her more current objectives.

There was also books, many marvelous book and journals to record any memories that Garnet felt come to the surface. And she thought she remembered feeling a burning sensation in her gems only few times before, but none like this.

In her hurry, Garnet didn't see the interloper hiding in a tall corner of the room. The interloper was lanky in stature, but strong, and quietly stole into the lower recesses of the room as Garnet shuffled through some of her recorded memories of the time before she had met Rose Quartz.

With a small tap on her shoulder, Garnet turned around, and in shock face the interloper, who loomed over her. It was another gem, with fire-like orange skin and white hair, and unnaturally black eyes. Embedded in the tip of his nose was a brilliant orange gemstone, and one just like it was visibly embedded into his arm, just above his elbow.

Garnet didn't have time to react before the gemstones on her palms began burning again, stronger than before. The gem scoffed her in disgust before knocking her onto the floor and yanking off her visor.

Garnet glared at the gem, who only gave her a smart smirk in response.

"It's been awhile," he said softly, but not sounding entirely sinister. "I have something for you, three-eyes."

As Garnet kept silent, her face a mask of pain and her gems beginning to throb like separate heartbeats. Her mouth drew back into a snarl as she stared at the gem hovering over her. The orange gem drew a club from one of his gemstones before he smacked Garnet over the head, and watched as she fell limply onto the ground.

With a small sigh, the gem shook his head, removing a photo from the pocket of his pants, beneath his tunic. He stuck it to Garnet's forehead, covering her third eye. The gem once again stole back into the shadows, and for now, away from the temple.

On the back of the photo was the message "_Your exile is over."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: There is so much information to include, and I can't do too much too soon...ugh, the struggle...<strong>

**Anywhoozles, I'm back! Sorry I left for so long, guys. I got busy with school, and then when I wasn't busy, I couldn't bring myself to write. I'm not feeling that inspired lately, but that came back with some of the music I listened to today =)**

**Thank you all so much for your continuous support and for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated. =)**


	2. The Photo

**Chapter Two: The Photo**

"Garnet?! Garnet! Wake up!"

Garnet slowly blinked her eyes open. Pearl was hanging onto Garnet's shoulders, shaking her awake, while Amethyst hovered over where Garnet's head, examining the tall gem.

"Is she gonna be okay?!" Steven yelled frantically.

"Relax! She's waking up," Amethyst said, holding up one hand to try and halt Steven, who was nervously pacing around the fallen gem.

"Pearl...Stop it," Garnet muttered thickly, trying to shrug Pearl's hands off of her shoulders. Her hands throbbed once, and she winced with pain.

Amethyst bent over beside Pearl, and both gems leaned away from Garnet.

"What happened?" Amethyst demanded calmly to Garnet, placing a hand on Pearl's shoulder to stop the slimmer gem from shaking. "We didn't hear from you for awhile, so we figured we'd come find you. Pearl came in and found you lying on the floor."

"...I'm not sure what happened," Garnet slurred. She slowly sat up, and noticed something dark attached to her forehead. Mindlessly removing the photo from over her third eye, Garnet took a good look at the photo in her hand. In the photo was a short little girl, who had black hair that reached just past her shoulders, light red skin, and a plain tunic and pants. The girl was smiling happily. Garnet looked at the girl with the red skin again frowned when she noticed two more girls in the photo's background, as if walking by while it was being taken. One had a small purple gem on her forehead.

Garnet bit back a gasp of pain when she felt her gemstones throb again. Slowly climbing into a standing position, Garnet glanced over her apprehensive teammates.

"Really, I'm alright," she said slowly. She glanced down at the triangular gemstone on her hand. "Just a bit tired from the last mission."

Steven nodded, forgetting some of his worry. "Alright, Garnet. If you say so."

Pearl and Amethyst glanced down at the youngest gem, amazed at how he seemed to shrug off his concern now more easily than earlier.

"Amethyst, do you want to go get some fry-bits with me?"

Amethyst glanced up at Garnet and then looked back at Steven, grinning.

"Sure," Amethyst said coolly. "As long as everything is okay here, we can head over to the boardwalk. You coming, Pearl?"

Pearl's gaze remained fixed on Garnet the entire time.

"...I need to take care of something in my room," Pearl finally answered, still refusing to look away.

"Um, okay," Amethyst shrugged. "Come on, Steven! Last one out is a rotten egg!"

"Okay!" Steven shouted, running toward the door.

"Be careful! You're still in the heart of the temple!" Pearl yelled after them fretfully. "Garnet, excuse me for a moment," Pearl said to her taller companion, holding out one hand as she chased after Amethyst and Steven.

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><p>Garnet sighed, finally alone in her room. She glanced over the photo of the little girl again, noting that the girl in the photo had a small, light-red gemstone on her hand. It was cut into a small, triangular shape. Just like her own.<p>

Turning the photo over, Garnet noticed the quick not scribbled onto the back. "_Your exile is over."_

Glancing over to a small mirror on the wall, Garnet slowly walked over, still clutching the photo. Looking at the small mirror closely, she ran her hand over the third eye on her forehead. Glaring at the mirror for a moment, she swept her hand over eyes, and her visor reappeared over her face. The photo fluttered out of her hand and onto the stone floor.

"Garnet, are you doing alright?"

Garnet flinched at the sound of Pearl's voice, caught off guard. She turned away from the mirror, her jaw slightly open.

Pearl looked up at Garnet's forehead, noticing that her visor was slightly crooked.

"Oh," she realized slowly. Garnet shook her head.

"It's fine," Garnet murmured a bit darkly. "It just hurts every now and then..."

"Um, Garnet...Rose told me not to ask you this when we were younger," Pearl began. Her eyes suddenly remained fixed on the photo on the floor, and Pearl slowly leaned over and picked it up. Garnet remained frozen where she stood.

Pearl's eyes widened when she saw the picture. "Another gem? Garnet, where did you get this?" She turned the photo over, and noticed the message on the back.

"Exile?!" Pearl exclaimed. Garnet sighed in response.

"What was it that you wanted to ask me?" she asked, expertly masking the nervousness in her voice.

"Yeah...um, Rose asked me not to ask you how..." Pearl began again, and pointed toward Garnet's forehead.

Garnet glared back at Pearl, and snatched the photo out of the smaller gem's hand.

"Get out," she said seriously, but keeping her voice level.

Now it was Pearl's turn to be frozen where she stood, a bit surprised at how viciously Garnet was glaring at her.

"Get out."

Pearl slowly backed toward the room's entrance, and watched Garnet turn away from her. Just before closing the door to the temple, Pearl watched as Garnet, unaware that the smaller gem was still around, took the photo of the little gem, and tore it into pieces.


	3. Chapter 3: Law 43

**Chapter 3: Law #43- If such a gem exists as to have dormant powers, then for safety reasons, they shall not be trained as gem warriors.**

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><p>"Ruby? What's wrong?"<p>

Ruby slowly looked up from where she was splayed across the ground to see two more gems, only slightly bigger than herself, standing only a few feet away.

"They won't teach me," Ruby cried with tears streaming down her face, and shook her head. "Their not going to teach me anything..."

"That's only because it's illegal," one of the two gems said, shaking her head. She had a small, purple gemstone in the middle of her forehead. "It's cause you're not powerful enough."

"I am too powerful!" Ruby argued back. "Don't be mean, Tourmaline!"

"Hey..." Tourmaline said gently, bending down and placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Try to relax, okay? I'm sorry... I'm being insensitive."

"Yeah," the other gem said. There was a dark blue gemstone embedded in the gem's palm. "What do those teachers know, anyway? Your powers might come in soon."

"They all hate me," Ruby cried. Ruby lifted on hand, which had a small, triangular gemstone cut into the palm. "They hate me because I don't have any gem powers. It's not my fault..."

"We know that," Tourmaline said reasonably. "It's okay. We don't hate you."

"Yeah, Ruby! You're a lot of fun. And besides, lots of powers come in when gems are adults! I don't think you need to worry," the blue gem said.

"Thanks, Sapphire," Ruby said, wiping away her tears. "You guys are right. It's a stupid law, though."

Both of the other two young gems nodded.

"Come on, it's getting cold out. Let's go!" Sapphire said cheerfully.

* * *

><p>"Tourmaline! Come at me again!"<p>

Tourmaline summoned her weapon, a small mace, and lunged for instructor. Ruby and Sapphire sat only a few feet away, watching the young gem practice. Among their peers, Tourmaline was commonly known as being advanced in her skills in combat.

While Ruby had dark hair and burgendy skin, Sapphire had ocean-blue skin and thick, silver-colored hair. Tourmaline had pixied, onyx hair, and dark purple skin. Both had been Ruby's friends for several years now, and while Ruby's gem powers never actually appeared, they both kept the young gem optimistic of the fact that this would change.

"Teacher! Can me and Berry try fusing again?"

Tourmaline's teacher, Zircon, turned around to face two young gems.

"Yes Citrine...Give it another go," Zircon commanded.

Two young gems, one with an orange gemstone embedded in the tip of his nose, light orange hair, and a orange and black tunic, and the other with snow-white hair, albino-white skin, and a white gemstone embedded into one of his arms, just above his elbow, stood ready to synchronize.

Zircon smiled and beckoned for Sapphire and Ruby to come forward with Tourmaline and watch. As Citrine and Beryl began to dance, both of their gemstones began to glow.

"Have you three ever seen gems fuse yet? Tourmaline, you're the only one that I know of who is advanced enough to have tried this..." Zircon said. She paused for a moment when she saw Ruby. Managing to bite back telling the young gem off from being near the training, Zircon shrugged and figured that it wasn't against gem law for a gem without powers to be in a training session when she wasn't the student.

A moment later, Citrine and Beryl locked hands and fused together. Ruby's eyes widened when she saw a gem at least three times her size standing in front of her, with fire-like orange skin and white hair, and unnaturally black eyes. Embedded in the tip of his nose was a brilliant orange gemstone, and one just like it was visibly embedded into his arm, just above his elbow.

"Hm. Good work," Zircon commented, looking the new gem up and down. "A bit small for a fusion, but rather powerful. What do you call yourself?"

"Fire Opal," the gem answered gruffly.

"Ah...Now show me your weapon," Zircon commanded. Fire Opal turned away, drawing throwing knives out of one gem and a club out of another to create a large, thorned club. Ruby stared at Fire Opal, awestruck.

* * *

><p>Pearl ran through the corridors of the temple until she reached Steven's room, finding herself in a slight panic as she opened her door.<p>

It was long past sundown, but Steven and Amethyst had gone to the boardwalk. Pearl had to remind herself that Amethyst agreed to this to distract Steven from anything that may be happening to Garnet.

She walked into the small kitchen of the house, and set a small kettle out on the stove. A few minutes later, when it whistled, Pearl poured herself a mug of tea and sat down at the counter. Normally, she avoided human food and drink at all times; it was unnatural how humans could ingest organic material. But Pearl reminded herself that she needed a moment to calm down, and that tea was tolerable for such a purpose.

Amethyst came in with Steven only a few moments later. Pearl shivered when the door to the house opened and a breeze flittered over her skin. Taking a long gulp of tea, she stood up and tried to speak, but her voice was caught in her throat.

Amethyst and Steven both turned, somewhat drowsy after their short time out at the boardwalk, when they heard a small gasp come out of Pearl.

Steven smiled and skipped over to the taller gem.

"What is it, Pearl? Why do you look so afraid?"

One of Pearl's hands reach over and covered her own mouth, fearing she may say the wrong thing.

"Amethyst...Steven...Something's not right with Garnet..." Pearl began. "I found a note that someone left her..."

The drowsiness instantly disappeared from Amethyst's eyes.

"Another gem left her a note?!" she exclaimed, taking a step back.

Pearl nodded, her hand still covering her mouth.

"What does that mean?" Steven asked curiously, rocking back and forth on his feet.

Pearl and Amethyst both seemed to ignore his question when Pearl chose to speak again.

"The note said something about her being exiled...Amethyst, did you know about any of this?"

Amethyst's eyes widened and she shook her head. Both of them argued back and forth for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do and arguing about how could this could happen and why they didn't know and when did Rose find Garnet anyway?

Steven, now sufficently frustrated with how the two gems were talking over him, threw up his arms in anger and shouted, "BUT WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN?!"

Amethyst and Pearl both paused.

"Um...Steven..." Pearl began, and swallowed.

Amethyst continued where the other gem left off.

"Gems aren't supposed to come to Earth, Steven. At least, they were never supposed to. It's dangerous here."

"But why?" Steven asked, looking a bit more afraid.

"Humans are the enemies of gems..." Pearl said. "Steven...I don't know how to tell you this...Gems who were exiled to Earth were exiled because they were corrupted, and beyond hope of healing."


	4. Fire Opal

Steven stared at Pearl, allowing those words to sink in. He didn't hear it when Pearl continued to speak, wondering to Amethyst how such a thing could have happened to Garnet and why Rose Quartz never told them.

"Pearl, you need to relax," Amethyst tried to remind her gently. "Rose broke a few boundaries on what type of gems she had join her team, if you remember correctly..."

"Amethyst! Gems that are declared 'corrupted' by the Homeworld means that their gemstone was either cracked and chosen to be used or that they became monsters that they couldn't control! What was Rose thinking?!"

"Pearl, has she ever been a monster?"

"No! But why is she exiled?!"

Steven winced as he heard them bickering back in forth. While it was obvious that Pearl was panicking, he noticed a more ambiguous undertone to Amethyst's voice whenever the smaller gem spoke.

"But what if she's dangerous...!"

"PEARL!"

"STOP!" Steven yelled, waving his arms. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I don't understand any of this...How could Garnet be dangerous? She leads all our missions. She protects us..."

Pearl stopped speaking, sitting down on the couch. She began hyperventilating and shaking, her eyes wide as saucers as she thought about the new development with Garnet.

"You're...right," she said finally, her voice shaking. "It's just...the Homeworld...We can't deal with them right now...And with everything with Peridot, now their trying to get into contact with Garnet..."

Amethyst shook her head. "One thing after another lately," she muttered a bit angrily.

Steven peered down at his feet, his hands unconsciously coming together and his fingers twiddling.

All remained silent for awhile as each gem considered the situation, and then-

"But why would they suddenly declare her exile over?"

Both Amethyst and Pearl looked up at Steven, jaws slightly open.

"That...is strange," Pearl somehow managed to agree calmly. The little gem shivered. "I've never heard of this happening before..."

Amethyst glared. "Do you think the Homeworld really has something innocent in mind?"

"That's also a good point," Pearl agreed. "We need to talk to Garnet."

"I'm going to go outside first," Steven declared. "Stevie needs air."

He turned away from both of his friends, deciding that it would be best to take time to think.

* * *

><p>Garnet shuttered and gasped, getting back to her feet. Her third eye closed, and she noticed that during her vision, she had fallen into a cold sweat. While used to the fact that there were many visions she received that led to her being in serious pain, it was sobering to see a vision in which her life was ended.<p>

Garnet thought back to the sequence of events that she saw a few moments ago. As she began to consider the possibilities, her vision blurred and her two gems began to pulse separately. Wincing, but managing to become more adjusted to the intense pain, she looked over at the door.

"It's about to happen," she murmured to herself. Her gems began to pulse even more furiously at the realization. Garnet ran out of her room near the heart of the crystal temple, ignoring the fact that she had knocked some of the present artifacts in the room aside.

* * *

><p>Steven stepped outside onto the deck attached to room, looking out at the beach. He could hear the sound of waves crashing against the shore only a short distance away, and the sand was bathed in light from a full moon. Sagging against the railing, Steven sighed.<p>

"I don't understand," he said, looking despondent. "Garnet's not dangerous...not to us, anyway. How could they even think..."

"I could tell you how."

Steven shot up from where he had been sliding onto the wooden floor of the deck, his head clipping the railing.

"Ow..." he mutter, rubbing his forehead with one hand. "Um...What?"

The young gem took a step back and looked up for the source of the voice that had split the night.

"I said I could tell you how."

Finally managing to pinpoint the voice's location, Steven turned to see a tall figure glancing down at him from on top of roof of his room.

"What...?" Steven managed to say, taking another step away.

The figure leapt off of the roof and landing only a few feet away from him. It was another gem, with fire-like orange skin and white hair that stood up as if it were made of flames. At his full height, he was only a little bit shorter than the fusion gem, Opal.

"...A gem?" Steven asked.

"Obviously," the tall gem answered. "So..." the gem took a moment to glance Steven up and down. "...You have the Rose Quartz gem...You're not even completely a gem..."

"How did you know that?" Steven asked, looking slightly amazed.

"A special ability that exists to one of my...counterparts," the gem said. A gem on the tip of his nose glowed once as he spoke, as if in recognition.

Steven noticed that as the gem flexed his arms that a white gemstone was embedded in his skin, just above his elbow.

"Ohh..." Steven said with a smile. "You're like my friend Garnet! She has two gemstones...So, why is she called 'corrupted'?"

"STEVEN!" Garnet yelled, bursting through the screen door of the house. Amethyst and Pearl stared after her in confusion until they noticed another gem standing by Steven. "Fire Opal, you leave him out of this!"

Fire Opal stared at Garnet for a moment as the gem made an attempt to summon her gauntlets. Garnet winced when her gemstones began to glow, and one gauntlet suddenly appeared on one hand.

Fire Opal smiled and formed a spiked club out of the gemstone on his hand.

"You know, I never would have thought that there were more gems here, but I guess they were right," Fire Opal muttered. "Drop your gauntlet. I didn't come here to fight. You got the note on the back of the picture, didn't you?"

Garnet kept her fist raised, and Steven had ended up in her other arm. Fire Opal lowered his club.

Sighing, he turned and walked through the door of the temple, walking past Amethyst and Pearl, who were frozen with shock.

"Wait."

Amethyst took a moment to step in front of Fire Opal before he reached the warp pad.

"How did you find us here?"

Fire Opal cocked his head to one side, looking Amethyst up and down.

"A Kindergarten gem..." he said slowly. "Interesting."

Drawing his club, Fire Opal swatted Amethyst aside with a flick of his hand. The littler gem flew into the opposite wall with a loud _bang_ before falling onto the ground and not moving.

Stepping onto the warp pad, Fire Opal disappeared with an abrupt flash of light.

* * *

><p>For many of the moments after Fire Opal left, a stony silence hung over the temple. Nobody said anything, but took a moment to reflect on what had just happened. A gem besides Peridot and Lapis had managed to come to Earth.<p>

"Garnet...Who was that?" Pearl finally managed to ask.

Garnet sank into the couch beside Steven, shaking her head as her gauntlet finally disappeared.

"Fire Opal," she stated.

"...Why was he here?" Amethyst asked.

"He left the photo. And we can't let him come back toward the temple. He's dangerous."

"But Garnet..." Steven spoke up for the first time in awhile. "Who is he?"

Garnet remained silent for a long time, and finally spoke.

"He is a tracker for the Homeworld. His ability to discern attributes of strength in certain gems makes him an excellent executioner. He also managed to get to Earth with the galaxy warp down."

"Alright, one more question..." Pearl began. "Why did were you branded as 'corrupted' to begin with?"

Garnet drew in a deep breath, and slowly removed her glasses. Steven looked at the third eye on her forehead before realizing that all three of Garnet's eyes were a different color.

"Because I destroyed a gem child when I lived on the Homeworld."

* * *

><p><strong>Oi... Before the season is over, I'm pretty sure we are going to be learning a lot about Garnet, so while the major premise of the fic isn't going to change, a couple details will. I don't think any horribly gigantic details will really be affected, because I doubt that CN is going to tell us much about Garnet's past until the next season, but clearly I'm trying to keep this as present as I can with this timeline. This may be a fic I have to write quickly if I want it to work. <strong>

**Either way, if I suddenly stop posting for awhile, it's because I'm poised for damage control =)**

**Time to go update Rose Petals =)**

**R&R bitte! Danke Schoen! =)**


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